I bought the Micheal Tilson Thomas Gershwin box years ago, for the orchestral music like Rhapsody in Blue and American in Paris, which is excellent. But then I heard Sarah Vaughn singing, and wow, it is special.



On CD.

Hummel was a contemporary of Beethoven, and he wrote a bunch of really good piano music to support his day job, which was as a piano virtuoso. When I first starting collecting classical music there was almost no Hummel to be had but the situation has changed for the better recently.



On CD.

Besides Schubert, the other great "unfinished" symphony is Bruckner's 9th. Like Schubert it ends with the Adagio, but unlike Schubert the finale is best described as apocalyptic.



On CD

Stanisaw Skrowaczewski's cycle of the Bruckner Symphonies is one of my favorites. Esp. because the Rundfunk Sinfonie Saarbrucken sounds every bit as impressive as the Berlin Philharmonic.

Recent acquisition:



On CD.

I'm not a big opera fan, but if I'm going to opera I like Wagner more than most. This isn't great Wagner singing, but Barenboim does a great job with the orchestral part (which matters a lot) and for like a buck a CD this is a great deal.

I'll tell anyone who asks that Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet is not only the greatest ballet every written, but the best piece of classical music written since Mahler died, YMMV. Prokofiev also wrote music for a Cinderella ballet, and the music is also excellent.



16/44 FLAC download.

Andre Previn does a great job balancing the drama and dance aspects of the piece.

Anton Reicha is yet another composure who is lost in the shadow of his friend, Beethoven. His music is excellent, and very interesting, but Beethoven's shadow is so long and dark that he is almost completely unknown today.



On CD.

He is best know for writing chamber music for winds, which is how I found him many years ago. At that time there were no recordings of his music, but now there are several.

Enjoying the Liszt arrangements of Schubert's songs. Anything Liszt played by Jorge Bolet is a treat.



On CD.

Beethoven's Op. 95 and 127 both do that trick of sounding classical and modern at the same time.



On CD.

Esp. as played by the Talisch Quartet.

Paavo Berglund has recorded a lot of Sibelius, but none of it is better than his very first recordings with the Bournemouth Symphony. I've been enjoying Symphony No. 3.



DSD rip from SACD.

What did Haydn do for an encore after inventing the string quartet and symphony? He wrote a bunch of choral music, including several mass settings and what I would consider his masterpiece, The Creation.



On CD.

For my money Leonard Bernstein is the best Haydn conductor who ever lived, and his recording(s) of The Creation are certainly worth of that reputation. I marginally prefer is later digital recording on DG to his earlier CBS, but you can't go wrong with either.

Tchaikovsky's 1st Piano Concerto is probably one of the top 5 most recognized pieces of classical music out there and last time I checked Van Cliburn's RCA recording was the best selling classical album of all time. Pretty much everyone has recorded it, and I can't think of a bad recording. But, when the greatest pianist of the 20th century, aka Sviatoslav Richter, and one of the great Tchaikovsky orchestras of the 20th century aka Yevgeny Mravinsky's Leningrad Philharmonic get together the results are pretty special.



16/44 FLAC download.

Pianist and orchestra both "leave it all on the field (stage)" as they say, and the midcentury mono sound is perfectly fine, if not up to the standards Living Stereo and Living Presence achieved.

Yes, Heitor Villa-Lobos--my kind of classical. I guess I listen most to his string quartets. Which makes sense as solo, trio, quartet and small ensemble pieces always move me more than orchestral works, live or recorded.

Been listening to more of violin lately, and pulled this out of my saved albums.  Today I’ll be in my work vehicle for the next 10 hours…so I’ll be able to really get back to listening to classical music.  I’m currently streaming this in Qobuz in CD quality through my AQ Dragonfly Red.